Roll stabilized pneumatically sprung railway car

ABSTRACT

A movement limiting safeguard system for controlling the roll of a car body utilizing air springs arranged between the car body and a bolster of a railway car, which has a car body roll controlling apparatus. An air reservoir is provided for both supplying air to the air springs of such a system and for storing any air which is removed from such air springs. Air feeding and air exhausting devices are provided for automatically adjusting the level of air within the air springs. The air feeding and air exhausting devices includes respectively air feeding valves and air exhausting valves, which are located in a plurality of pipes which connect the air springs with the air reservoir. A checking circuit is provided for controlling the operation of the air feeding valves and air exhausting valves. A stopper device is provided between the car body and the bolster so as to control the vertical motion of the car body without obstructing the extension and contraction of the air springs, this stopper device is provided for maintaining the relationship between the car body and the bolster in a neutral position when the car body roll controlling apparatus fails.

States tent 11 1 Kitaoka et al.

1 1 ROLL STABILIZED PNEUMATICALLY SPRUNG RAILWAY CAR [75] Inventors: Takashi Kitaoka, Amagasaki; Yasuhiro Shirane, Nishinomiya;

Junzo Yamada, Toyonaka. all of Japan [73] Assignees: Sumitomo Metal Industries Limited; Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha, Japan [22] Filed: Feb. 28, 1974 [21] App]. No.: 446,757

Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 255.153. May 19.

1972. abandoned.

[52] US. Cl 105/164; 105/197 B; 105/199 A; 105/210 [51] Int. Cli' B61F 5/10; B61F 5/24; B61F 13/00; B61H 11/00 [58] Field of Search 105/164, 197 B, 199 R, 105/199 A. 210, 453

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2.135.224 11/1938 Schoepf et al. 105/199 A x 3,572.747 3/1971 Pollinger et al.... 105/197 B X 3.701.397 10/1972 Shirane et al. 105/199 R X Primary E.\ztntincrM. Henson Wood. Jr.

Assistant Examine/'Howard Beltran Attorney, Agent. or FirmWatson. Cole, Grindle & Watson 1 ABSTRACT A movement limiting safeguard system for controlling the roll of a car body utilizing air springs arranged between the car body and a bolster of a railway car, which has a car body roll controlling apparatus. An air reservoir is provided for both supplying air to the air springs of such a system and for storing any air which is removed from such air springs. Air feeding and air exhausting devices are provided for automatically adjusting the level of air within the air springs. The air feeding and air exhausting devices includes respectively air feeding valves and air exhausting valves, which are located in a plurality of pipes which connect the air springs with the air reservoir. A checking circuit is provided for controlling the operation of the air feeding valves and air exhausting valves. A stopper device is provided between the car body and the bolster so as to control the vertical motion of the car body without obstructing the extension and contraction of the air springs, this stopper device is provided for maintaining the relationship between the car body and the bolster in a neutral position when the car body roll controlling apparatus fails.

v 1975 I shack 1 of2 391 8369 FIG.2

MQB

ROLL STABILIZED PNEUMATICALLY SPRUNG RAILWAY CAR RELATED APPLICATION The present application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 255,153, filed May 19, 1972 and now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a safeguard or fail safe system for limiting the movement of a car body with respect to a bolster on which it is arranged. Such system is designed foruse with a car body roll controlling apparatus for limiting the movement of the car body when such apparatus fails.

A car body roll controlling system utilizes a plurality of air springs which are arranged between a car body and a bolster of the railway car. Such air springs provides for a relatively stable and smooth motion of the car body. When the car body roll controlling apparatus fails however, unless the system is brought underneath stable control, erratic and uneven motion of the car body will occur. One possible cause of such a failure can be due to a failure of an electric system of the railway car. If the car body roll control is in partial operation at the time of such failure, when the car body moves along acurved track reversed to that state, the passengers will feel unpleasant lateral acceleration and not only will the riding comfort significantly deteriorate but also this state is not the most desirable for a safe operation of the railway car.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a system for maintaining the relationship between the car body and the bolster of the railway car when a failure of the car body roll controlling apparatus occurs.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a safeguard fail safe system for a car body roll controlling apparatus in order to eliminate the above mentioned drawbacks.

In the operation of the system of the present invention, when the car body roll controlling apparatus fails, the relative position of the car body and the bolster is automatically adjusted so that the component returns to a neutral state and at the same time this neutral state is maintained. In this manner, the operation of the system is safe and the riding comfort is significantly improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a portion of a railway car incorporating the control assembly of the present invention, with a portion of the car being cut away so as to provide an illustration of the control assembly.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of a portion of a railway car incorporating another embodiment of the control assembly of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block circuit diagram of the checking circuit of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram providing a schematic illustration of the operation of the checking circuit shown in FIG. 3.

1 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT springs 5' and 5 which in turn are connected to the bol- I ster 6. Air feeding valves 2 and 2 and air exhausting valves 3 and 3 are set in the air pipes which respectively connect the air springs 5 and 5 with an air reservoir 1. The air feeding and air exhausting valves in turn are controlled by the application of signals from a controller circuit 9. The signals which are supplied by controller 9 causes the valves to be either switched on or switched off depending upon the desired state of operation.

A checking circuit 15, which includes an abnormal acceleration detector, a logic circuit and a set of fuses or an emergency button, is attached to the system described above, such as shown in FIG. I. This checking circuit 15 controls the operation of the air exhausting valves 3 and 3', or alternatively it can control a separate set of emergency air exhausting valves 7 and 7, in response to a detection that the control apparatus for controlling the roll of the car body has failed.

Additionally, as shown in FIG. I, a set of stoppers 4 and 4 are provided for limiting the vertical motion of the car body in such a manner which will not obstruct the operation of the control apparatus for controlling the car body roll, these stoppers are provided between the car body 8 and the bolster 6. A supporting base 10 is provided on top of the central portion of the bolster 6 and projections for 4 and 4 made of an elastic material, are mounted on the supporting base 10.

In the embodiments shown in FIG. 2, the checking circuit controls the operation of the air feeding valves 2 and 2. In this embodiment, pin receivers 4 and 4 are erected in the central part of the bolster 6 and engaging members 13 and 13 having slots 12 are hung with pins 14 respectively on brackets 11 and 11 which are connected to the bottom surface of the car body 8 and are inserted respectively in the above mentioned pin receivers 4 and 4 In carrying out this connection, pins 16 pass through through the slots 12 and are respectively connected to the pin receivers 4 and 4 In providing stoppers for carrying out the desired operation in accordance with the present invention, the stoppers are not limited to the types disclosed here but may include any means which provide an action for supporting the body when air in the air springs has been exhausted or alternatively to engage the car body on the bolster at a fixed height between them when air has been fed to the air springs.

When the controller 9 or a similar control apparatus, fails and the controlling apparatus becomes inoperative, in the embodiment in FIG. 1 the air exhausting valves 3 and 3 will be opened so as to exhaust the air out of the air springs 5 and 5 by the checking circuit 15. The air springs will be contracted and the car body will be supported on the stoppers 4 and 4 In the embodiments shown in FIG. 2, when the controlling apparatus fails, the air feeding valves 2 and 2 will be opened so as to feed extra air into the air springs 5 and 5 by operation of the checking circuit 15. In accordance with this embodiment, the air springs will be extended and the body 8 will be lifted to its maximum position and will be held in such a'position in which the lower edges of the slots 12 engage with the respective pins 16.

As shown in FIG. 3, the checking circuit 15 is coupled to the output of the controller 9. The controller 9 includes an acceleration detector whose output is measured by a comparator 21 in order to determine whether or not the car body is rolled. A relay controlling circuit transmits an instruction to the electromagnetic valve, or switch, circuit 23 when the output of the acceleration detector exceeds a predetermined value. The checking circuit includes an abnormal acceleration detector 24, a failure detecting logic circuit 25, a fuse 26 and an emergency switch 27. The logic circuit 25 is capable of detecting an error signal from the acceleration detector 20, the comparator circuit 21 or the relay controlling circuit 22 and providing an output signal in response to such error signals. All of the above mentioned circuit components, 24, 25, 26 and 27 are arranged in parallel with the controller 9 such that when the car body roll controlling apparatus fails, the checking circuit transmits an instruction to the electromagnetic valve circuit 23 or the emergency electromagnetic valve circuit 28. The electromagnetic valve circuit 23 operates to control the air exhausting valves 3 and 3' and the air feeding valves 2 and 2, while the emergency electromagnetic valve circuit 28 operates to control the emergency air exhausting valves 7 and 7.

In FIG. 4 a schematic illustration of the operation of the checking circuits and the controller 9 is provided. As shown in thisFigure, a DC-electric source 29 is included for providing power to the circuit. Switches 30 and 31 provide an indicating signal from the abnormal acceleration detector 24 and a signal from the emergency push button 27, respectively. Elements 32 and 33 represent the logic circuit of element 25 in FIG. 3. The logic circuit 32 is provided for the situation where the outputs of the left and right rollin'gs are simultaneously transmitted and the logic circuit 33 is provided for the situation where the output from only one of the two stages is transmitted. A reset circuit 34 and a selfholding relay 35 are additionally provided within the circuit arrangement.

In FIG. 4, RS in the reset circuit 34 denotes a reset switch to reset the whole resetting circuit. If the reset switch is pushed, energization of ER of amagnet 36 will be cut off. ER of the self-holding relay 35 is provided to connect the circuits by 'energization of ER of the magnet 36 so that even if the circuits such as 30, 31, 32 and 33 are once short-circuited and subsequently disconnected, the self-holding relay 35 keeps the whole checking circuit in the operative condition and activates the electromagnetic valve circuit 23 or emergency electromagnetic valve circuit 28. 3R of the switch 30 represents a relay provided to operate when the output from the acceleration detector 20 is much greater than a predetermined value that it is clearly considered to be abnormal. ES of the switch 31 is an emergency switch of push-button type. By pushing the emergency switch, the switch 31 is short-circuited and ER of the magnet 36 is energized. LR of the logic circuit 32 is an output relay of the first stage and is transmitted in case of the left rolling. This output relay is transmitted after the comparator circuit 21 which compares and discriminates the outputs from the acceleration detector 20 determined the direction of roll and determines the existence of an acceleration more than a predetermined output value so that the air feeding valves 2 and 2 and the air exhausting valves 3 and 3' are operated by this output relay. Similarly, RR of the logic circuit is an output relay of the first stage and is transmitted in case of the right rolling. The logic circuit 32 is short-circuited only when the output relays LR and RR are simultaneously transmitted. The logic circuit 33 is similar to the logic circuit 32, but is shortcircuited when both output relays LR and RR are not operated and a relay 2R of the second stage (which transmits the output at an acceleration greater than that set by the first stage) is operated. In this case only ER of the magnet 36 is energized.

A contact 37 is short-circuited simultaneously with energizing the magnet 36 by short-circuiting the circuit such as 30, 31, 32 or 33 and energizes the electromagnetic valve 23 or 28.

In accordance with the present invention, when the car body roll controlling apparatus fails, due to the operation of the checking circuit, the car body will be returned to the same state as in the case where there was no controlling system, hence its neutral position. The car body will then be held in this neutral position until the original state is capable of being restored. Thus, a safe operation is secured even at the time of the failure and the riding comfort is significantly improved.

It is noted that the above description and the accompanying drawings are provided merely to present exemplary embodiments of the present invention and that additional modifications of such embodiments are possible within the scope of this invention without deviating from the spirit thereof.

We claim:

1. In a safeguard system for controlling the roll of a car body of a railway car, the system including air springs arranged between the body and bolster of the railway car, an air reservoir, air feeding means and air exhausting means for respectively automatically feeding air into and exhausting air out of the air springs, the air. feeding means and air exhausting means including air feeding valves and air exhausting valves, respectively, car body roll control means for controlling the air feeding means and air exhausting means, a plurality of pipes connecting the air springs with the air reservoir with the air feeding valves and the air exhausting valves being arranged within the pipes, and the improvement comprising .checkingmeans for controlling the operation ofthe air feeding valves and the air exhausting valves by applying activating signals thereto, stopper means arranged between the car body and the bolster so as to limit the vertical motion of the car body without obstructing the extension and contraction of the air springs and the car body roll controlling action such that when the control means fails the feeding and exhausting valves are activated in response to the actuation of said checking means such that said stopper means limits the movement of said car body thereby maintaining the relationship between the car body and the bolster in a neutral position.

2. A safeguard system as defined in claim 1 wherein said checking means activates the air exhausting valve so as to force the removal of air out of the air springs when failure of the control means occurs and said stopper means includes a base provided above the bolster and projections of an elastic body arranged on said base such that when failure of the control means occurs the relationship between the car body and the bolster is maintained in a neutral position.

3. A safeguard system as defined'in claim 1 wherein said stopper means includes: pin receiver means mounted on the bolster and having a plurality of pins; engaging means having slots therein, through which said pins of said pin receiver means pass; and brackets,

each pivotally connected at one end to a respective one in a neutral position.

l I l 

1. In a safeguard system for controlling the roll of a car body of a railway car, the system including air springs arranged between the body and bolster of the railway car, an air reservoir, air feeding means and air exhausting means for respectively automatically feeding air into and exhausting air out of the air springs, the air feeding means and air exhausting means including air feeding valves and air exhausting valves, respectively, car body roll control means for controlling the air feeding means and air exhausting means, a plurality of pipes connecting the air springs with the air reservoir with the air feeding valves and the air exhausting valves being arranged within the pipes, and the improvement comprising checking means for controlling the operation of the air feeding valves and the air exhausting valves by applying activating signals thereto, stopper means arranged between the car body and the bolster so as to limit the vertical motion of the car body without obstructing the extension and contraction of the air springs and the car body roll controlling action such that when the control means fails the feeding and exhausting valves are activated in response to the actuation of said checking means such that said stopper means limits the movement of said car body thereby maintaining the relationship between the car body and the bolster in a neutral position.
 2. A safeguard system as defined in claim 1 wherein said checking means activates the air exhausting valve so as to force the removal of air out of the air springs when failure of the control means occurs and said stopper means includes a base provided above the bolster and projections of an elastic body arranged on said base such that when failure of the control means occurs the relationship between the car body and the bolster is maintained in a neutral position.
 3. A safeguard system as defined in claim 1 wherein said stopper means includes: pin receiver means mounted on the bolster and having a plurality of pins; engaging means having slots therein, through which said pins of said pin receiver means pass; and brackets, each pivotally connected at one end to a respective one of said engaging means by said respective pin and connected at the other end to the bottom of the car body such that at the time of failure of the control means said chEcking means activates said air feeding valve so as to forceably feed air into said air springs so as to maintain the relationship between the car body and the bolster in a neutral position. 